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Cell Phone Use & Driving
A Traffic Safety Epidemic
®
© 2011 National Safety Council
Motor vehicle crashes
• 1 million people have died in motor vehicle crashes in
the last 25 years
• 35,000 deaths each year in the U.S.
• Leading cause of on and off-the-job unintentional
deaths in the U.S.
• Leading cause of death for people 5- to 35-years-old
• Cost to society = $100 billion per year
• Society appears to have grown complacent, accepting
these deaths and injuries
• Safety engineering has made significant advances
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Motor vehicle crashes
Vehicle maintenance factors
– Definite cause 10% of the time
– Probable cause 13% of the time
Environmental factors
– Definite cause 20% of the time
– Probable cause 33% of the time
Human error
– Definite cause 70% of the time
– Probable cause 93% of the time
Source: Auto Alliance
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Driving distractions
The Science of Distraction
Visual:
eyes on road
Mechanical: hands on wheel
Cognitive: mind on driving
• Much more than “eyes on the road, hands on the
wheel”
• Visual and mechanical distractions are short lived cognitive distractions last much longer
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Selective attention / switching
• When brains are overloaded by two cognitive tasks,
people switch attention (without recognizing it)
– Make one task “primary” and the other “secondary”
• Cognitive attention to driving can become secondary
to a phone conversation
• When driving is a secondary task for the brain, driving
becomes impaired
– Impairment takes several forms, including
inattention blindness and tunnel vision
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Inattention blindness
© 2011 National Safety Council
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What we know about cell phone
use and driving
Role of Mobile Phones in Motor Vehicle Crashes
Resulting in Hospital Attendance
Suzanne P McEvoy, Mark R Stevenson, Anne T McCartt, et al - 2004
• Likelihood of crashing increases by 4x
• Risk was raised irrespective of whether or not a hands-free
device was used
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Hands-free and crash risk
Hands free devices do not reduce crash risk:
– National Safety Council
– National Transportation Safety Board
– World Health Organization
– Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
– Governors Highway Safety Association
• 30+ studies reported substantial negative effects of cell phone
use on driving for hands-free and handheld phones
• Similar effects in reaction time, speed, headway and lateral
lane position, for hands-free and handheld phones
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Free download at:
thebrain.nsc.org
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Thursday (2-2-2012) evening I was in my car, stopped at a
traffic light. After the light turned green, but before the car in front
of me had time to start through the intersection, I was hit from
behind. In talking with the woman who hit me, I found out that she
was on her phone – but she assured me that she was driving
safely because she was using her built-in, hands-free system in
her Lincoln SUV. She said that she saw the light was green, but
guessed that she didn’t notice that the cars weren’t moving yet.
Fortunately, nobody was hurt seriously.
When the police got there, she showed them all the
“safety features” of her in-dash phone system, and they seemed
impressed - she didn’t get a ticket!
Debby Young, NSC Staff
®
© 2011 National Safety Council
What we know about cell phone
use while driving
Comparison of the Cell Driver and Drunk Driver
Strayer, Drews, et al, University of Utah - 2004
• No difference between handheld and hands-free
• Cell phone distracted drivers have slower reaction
times and were more likely to crash than drivers with a
.08 BAC
© 2011 National Safety Council
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What we know about cell phone
distraction
A Decrease in Brain Activation Associated
With Driving
Carnegie Mellon University, Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging - 2008
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Result
The parietal activation associated with driving decreases
substantially (by 37%) with sentence listening.
Source: http://downloads.nsc.org/pdf/tdd/NSC_Arlington_Oct_2008_for_%20NSC.pdf
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Understanding crash causation
“The real key to significantly improving safety is keeping your eyes
on the road. In contrast, cognitively intense tasks can have a
measurable effect in the laboratory, but the actual driving risks are
much lower in comparison.”
Source: Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
“Talking - be it interacting with passengers or on the cell phone has a mixed effect on driving safety. In fact, in the case of drowsy
drivers (e.g. truckers), talking on cell phones can actually reduce
crashes. Evidence shows that so-called “cognitive distractions”
aren’t much of an issue, but physical distractions are.”
Source: Ford Motor Company
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Understanding crash causation
“Using mobile phones can cause drivers to take their eyes off the
road, their hands off the steering wheel, and their minds off the
road and the surrounding situation. It is this type of distraction –
known as cognitive distraction – which appears to have the
biggest impact on driving behaviour.
Source: World Health Organization
(with funding from NHTSA)
“There is no conclusive evidence on whether hands-free cell
phone use is less risky than hand-held use.”
Source: Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA)
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Understanding crash causation
Experimental and laboratory studies
– Simulators
– Test tracks
Epidemiology studies
– Examines statistical correlations
Naturalistic studies
– Observations
– Cameras and monitoring equipment in cars
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Understanding crash causation
Experimental and laboratory studies
Attributes
– Can control for specific behaviors
Limitations
– Does simulator performance translate to real world
conditions?
– Not representative - limited study size
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Understanding crash causation
Epidemiology studies
Attributes
– Random selection
– Large participation
– Natural driving environment
Limitations
– Limited experimental control
– Long lead time and expensive
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Understanding crash causation
Naturalistic studies
Attributes
– Natural driving environment
Limitations
– Not representative - limited study size
– Are they really natural?
– The problem with surrogate crashes
– Key data (near crashes) are not collected
– Can’t measure cognitive distraction – no audio or cell
records
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Crashes and cell phones
Risk – how risky is the distraction
Reading
Reaching for a moving object
Turning around in a seat
Talking on a cell phone
Texting
3.4x
8.8x
8.8x
4x
8-23x
Prevalence – how often is it happening
Manipulating a wireless device
Talking on a cell phone
0.9%
9%
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Crashes and cell phones
• Minimum of 150,000 crashes
– 3% of all crashes, involve texting
• 1.2 million crashes per year
– 21% of all crashes, involve cell phone conversations
24% of all crashes
involve cell phone use
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Misperceptions
If talking on a cell phone is so dangerous, and cell phone
use has exploded in the last 10 years, why haven’t we
seen a spike in crashes and fatalities?
Crashes have actually decreased 9% since 2000 and
fatalities have also trended downward.
How can this be?
© 2011 National Safety Council
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© 2011 National Safety Council
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Misperceptions
There isn't enough evidence to prove that using a cell
phone while driving causes crashes
• Difficult to collect crash data
• Much evidence, few statistics
• An absence of statistics does not prove or even
indicate the absence of a problem
It’s no more dangerous than talking to a passenger
• A passenger in a vehicle is aware of the driving
situation and can even serve as an additional look-out
• The phone carries a certain obligation of immediacy
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Putting it all together
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death
for people 5 to 35 years old
• Human error causes the vast majority of crashes
• Cell phone drivers four times more likely to be involved in a
personal injury crash
• Reaction times slower than .08 BAC
• Hands-free as dangerous as handheld
• Inattention blindness
• 37% reduction in spatial processing in the part of the brain
used for the task of driving
• Cell phone use involved in 24% of all crashes
Voluntary compliance is difficult
© 2011 National Safety Council
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NSC Leading the Way
© 2011 National Safety Council
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NTSB Recommends:
(1) Ban the nonemergency use of portable electronic
devices (other than those designed to support the
driving task) for all drivers;
(2) Use the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration model of high visibility enforcement to
support these bans; and
(3) Implement targeted communication campaigns to
inform motorists of the new law and enforcement, and
to warn them of the dangers associated with the
nonemergency use of portable electronic devices
while driving.
December 13, 2011
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Employer liability
$21.6 million: A stay-at-home dad received the award for the violent wreck that killed
his wife, after a jury found a driver negligent for either talking on her cell phone or some
other distraction.
$21 million - A soft drink beverage truck driver was using a hands-free headset, in
compliance with a handheld ban, when she struck another vehicle and injured the
driver. A jury awarded $21 million in damages to the injured driver.
$20.9 million: Dykes Industries of Little Rock, Ark., lost a personal injury suit in which
its employee was using a cell phone when the crash occurred.
$18 million: Holmes Transport, of Muscle Shoals, Ala., was ordered to pay the
damages by a U.S. District Judge to Mark Tiburzi who was left unable to walk or talk
after a crash caused by one of their drivers distracted by a cell phone.
$5.2 million: International Paper employee Vanessa McGrogan was using her
company-supplied cell phone when she rear-ended a vehicle driven by Debra Ford.
$2.5 million: State of Hawaii agreed to pay as its share of liability in a crash involving a
state employee who was talking on her cell phone when she hit a tourist.
$1.5 million: City of Palo Alto has agreed to pay the victim of a 2006 vehicle crash
involving a city worker who was using his cell phone while driving.
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Sample cell phone policy
Company employees may not use cellular telephones or mobile
electronic devices while operating a motor vehicle under any of
the following situations, regardless of whether a hands-free device
is used:
• When employee is operating a vehicle owned, leased or rented
by the Company.
• When the employee is operating a personal motor vehicle in
connection with Company business.
• When the motor vehicle is on Company property.
• When the cellular telephone or mobile electronic device is
company owned or leased.
• When the employee is using the cellular telephone or mobile
electronic device to conduct Company business.
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Companies with policies
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Exxon/Mobil
DuPont
Halliburton
Shell
Chevron
BP
Enbridge
AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical
CA Office of Traffic Safety
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Abbott Pharmaceutical
Cargill
CSX Intermodal
Schneider National
Sysco Corporation
Time Warner Cable
Potash
Owens Corning
NTSB
Just a sample - no national database of
companies with policies
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Company cell phone policies
Survey of NSC member companies – August 2009
• 2,004 respondents
• 469 (23.3%) had bans that included both hands-free and
handheld wireless communication devices
• 36.1% of NSC members w/o policies have plans in the next
12 months to create policies
• Only seven companies (1.5%) with policies reported a
decrease in employee productivity
• 46 companies (10%) reported a productivity increase
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Cell Phone Policy Kit
• Everything you need for a
comprehensive policy
– Resources for executives
– Roll out plan
– Educational materials
http://cellphonekit.nsc.org
DVDs available June 1
To request a copy, please email
[email protected]
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Public support
Quinnipiac University
• 2424 US Voters
• November 2010, +/- .02
• By a 63% – 34% margin, American voters support a federal
ban on cell phone use while driving, even while using a
"hands-free" device
Nationwide Insurance “On Your Side Survey”
• 1008 US drivers
• August 2009, +/- .03
• 80% support ban on texting or emailing
• 57% support a ban on all cell phone use while driving
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Public support
Scientific research on the subject of wireless phone use and driving
has been conducted worldwide for several years. According to the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the available
research indicates that using a wireless phone while driving
degrades a driver’s performance, whether it is a hands-free or handheld wireless phone. NHTSA advises that the “safest course of
action is to refrain from using a cell phone while driving.” NHTSA’s
policy on “Cell Phone Use While Driving,” as well as Frequently
Asked Questions on the subject, are available at www.nhtsa.gov.
For your well being and the well being of those around you, you
should consider turning your phone off and allowing calls to go to
voice mail while you are driving.
-Verizon website
(May 2010)
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Takeaways
• We need full attention for the task of driving - cognitive
distraction is real - multitasking is a myth
• Hands-free is not risk free
• Risk exposure is what makes cell phone use the
biggest threat
• A policy that prohibits all cell phone use while driving
is the only way to best protect your work force and
mitigate liability.
© 2011 National Safety Council
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What you can do
• Personal example – stop using cell phone when
driving (change no answer greeting)
• Don’t talk with people who call you while they are
driving
• Educate employees, drivers, parents, friends and
family
• Implement cell phone driving bans
• Support legislation and enforcement
© 2011 National Safety Council
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Thank you!
© 2011 National Safety Council
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